The Presidential Candidates’, Super PACs’ and Parties’ May 20 Reports Give Clues for June 20

Clinton on a par with Obama; Trump far behind past counterparts

RNC is ahead of DNC, but not enough to make up the difference

Includes Historical 2008 and 2012 Tables through April and May

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On June 20, the Presidential candidate and national political parties will file what is in effect their last set of financial reports before the unofficial general election. The June 20 reports will take the candidates through May 31. In this release, the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) presents detailed tables through April 30, 2016, along with comparable tables through April and May of 2008 and 2012. The purpose is to help users put the next reports into context. Links to a full set of historical parties and candidate data are included at the end of this release.

Clinton, Sanders & Trump

Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had raised more than $200 million through April 30th. This was somewhat below the $207.9 (2012) and $262.8 (2008) that the Obama campaign raised over the same time period. However, the Clinton campaign and Super PAC, when combined, raised more than Obama. The combined amount raised by her campaign committee and supporting (though legally independent) Super PAC was $289.4 million.

Bernie Sanders continued to raise large amounts of money from small contributions. However, the percentage of money from donors who have given $200 or less in the aggregate has continued to fall month to month as his campaign reached out to donors to give multiple times. At the end of April, 48% of the money raised by his campaign came from donors who had given $200 or less, compared to 64% at the end of 2015. This remains ahead of President Obama’s 41% at the end of May 2012 and Clinton’s 22% through April 30, 2016.

Through April, Donald Trump had raised only $13.8 million from individual donors, with the remainder of his money coming from self-financing ($43.5 million). This put him significantly behind where Mitt Romney and John McCain stood going into the summers of 2008 and 2012. Trump’s next report (through May 31) will show some additional fundraising, but will still be well short of Romney’s $119 million or McCain’s $108 million.

Super PACs

Super PAC spending in the primaries has been significantly higher in the 2016 presidential primaries than in 2012, the first cycle they were utilized. However, not much of it has been for candidates who are still in the race. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have not been not been utilizing Super PACs. The pro-Clinton PAC, Priorities USA Action, spent $11.5 million through June 14th which was only 5% of the $238.8 million in independent expenditures by candidate Super PACs over the same period. In 2012, the pro-candidate Super PACs had made $81.2 million in independent expenditures by April 30th.

National Parties

Political party spending is a crucial part of modern presidential election campaigns. As of April 30, the Republican National Committee (RNC) had outraised the Democratic National Committee (DNC) by $150 million to $96 million). Much of the difference can be attributed to the RNC’s effective use of newly created accounts authorized in late 2014. Donors are allowed to give to the party general fund, as well as accounts for conventions, building funds, and election recounts. For example, by April 30th, the RNC had raised $14.0 million for its convention account compared to only $3.9 million for the DNC.

Joint Fundraising

In a unique arrangement, Hillary Clinton has been conducting joint fundraising with the DNC and a number of state party committees before she had become the presumptive nominee. She added $16.9 million dollars to her campaign account in this way through April 30th. Although the upcoming reports will show additional money sent to the campaign in this way, we will not get another report from the joint fundraising committee itself until July 15th.

As reference, Barack Obama was able to raise significant amounts through joint fundraising in 2012. The Obama Victory 2012 committee raised $455 million. By May 31st 2012 the Obama campaign had received $59 million from his joint fundraising committee. He had the benefit of being an incumbent candidate and was able to joint fundraise with the DNC as early as the spring of 2011.

Trump has signed a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee, but had not done any joint fundraising through April. In 2012 Mitt Romney’s joint fundraising committee raised $140 million during April, May and June on its way to raising $493 million over the course of the campaign. That included $17 million in itemized contributions in April 2012 and $52 Million in June.

Data Tables:

The following is a list of tables for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 election campaigns. All percentages in the “sources of funds” tables are based on aggregate donor amounts. Donors who began with unitemized contributions before crossing the $200 disclosure threshold have all of their money counted among the above-$200 donors.

The Campaign Finance Institute is the nation's pre-eminent think tank for objective, non-partisan research on money in politics in U.S. federal and state elections. CFI's original work is published in scholarly journals as well as in forms regularly used by the media and policy making community. Statements made in its reports do not necessarily reflect the views of CFI's Trustees or financial supporters.